Two of the 13 Congressional candidates listed in an Election Integrity Project California lawsuit being filed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals spoke at a June 21 election event held in Thousand Oaks and challenged attendees to fight to protect ballot and voting procedures in California.
“What happened in November was fraudulent,” said 35th California district candidate Mike Cargile who is running again for Congress in 2022. “This [election] case is really the most pivotal case in the nation’s history. There is no greater issue in America than election integrity.”
“There was so much fraud in the 2020 election,” said 26th Congressional District candidate Ronda Kennedy. “How do you explain that I won in-person voting by 3:1 and that my opponent Congresswoman Julia Brownley (in office since 2012) won the mail-in votes by 94 percent?”
Meeting participant Sharon S. (who did not want to use her full last name) of Thousand Oaks, told those gathered that when she went to vote on a voting machine at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, she was asked the following question: “’Do you want to vote for Donald J. Trump and Ronda Kennedy?’ I had to confirm before submitting my vote.”
Election Integrity Project Ventura County Coordinator Challenges Citizens
“Elections are not about parties; but about voice. It is important that we know our voice. if we lose our voice; we are in trouble,” said Ventura County Election Integrity Project Coordinator Gloria Chinea. “The goal of EIPCa is to enable citizens to become active participants in the entire election process from overseeing the integrity of the voter rolls, to ensuring that each lawfully cast vote is counted and counted fairly. We want 30,000 citizen observers to be trained.”
Trained EIPCa Observers Speak on Election Irregularities
Rolando Chinea (Oxnard): “Voting irregularities are the norm. We need to make people more aware of this reality.”
Mary Gallegos (Agoura Hills): “When we sued Ventura County in 2018, I remember the question that the judge asked me: What do you want to see happen during voting? I said: ‘I want closer access and more power to observe.’”
Rick Estrada (Moorpark): “During the 2018 election, I saw someone vote and then leave the precinct and return to vote twice. The poll workers just let him do this.”
William Spangler (Westlake Village): “We need more poll observers.”
Annette Sula (Fillmore): “I worked the polls in 2016 and 2018 and I saw elections going the wrong way. Things are not going to change unless we change it.”
Rhonda Taylor (Fillmore): “My husband and I are from Louisiana. Elections are different in California. In Louisiana, I knew everybody and they knew me. Yet, when it was time to vote they asked for my identification. I was asked by three different election workers. Here, no one asked.”
California Election Lawsuit Appeals to Ninth Circuit Court
An Election Integrity Project California lawsuit filed Jan. 4 at California’s Central District Court was dismissed June 15. The defendants’ motions to dismiss came without ruling on the facts, paving the way for a plaintiffs’ appeal. EIPCa attorney Joshua Kroot of the Primary Law Group told The Epoch Times on June 16 that an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court is forthcoming.
Chinea said that the watchdog organization is expecting to pay $2.6 million in legal fees plus additional costs for election forensic audits.
The EIPCa lawsuit was filed against defendants: California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley Weber, Attorney General Xavier Becerra, Governor Gavin Newsom, Alameda Registrar Tim Dupuis, Contra Costa Registrar Deborah R. Cooper, Fresno Registrar James A. Kus, Los Angeles Registrar Dean Logan, Monterey Registrar Claudio Valenzuela, and Orange Registrar Neal Kelley.
Some 13 Congressional candidates who ran in 2020 and are also running in 2022 are the lawsuit’s plaintiffs. They include: Chris Bish (6th District); James P. Bradley (33rd District); Mike Cargile (35th District); Kevin Cookingham (16th District); Eric Early (28th District); Jeffrey Gorman (20th District); Alison Hayden (15th District); Ronda Kennedy (26th District); Johnny Nalbandian (27th District); Buzz Patterson (7th District); Gary Raths (45th District); Mark Reed (30th District); and Aja Smith (41st District).
The EIPCa lawsuit put forth by Los Angeles Primary Law Group attorney Joshua Kroot states: “Election integrity and transparency are critical for the enfranchisement of every eligible voter, regardless of party or political view.”
The lawsuit addresses vote by mail ballots and California’s use of voting machines, stating: “citizen observers were denied access to ballot processing facilities and barred from observing the remaking of military, damaged or defective ballots or the validation of signatures on Vote by Mail ballots. The lawsuit seeks an audit of the original and remade/duplicated paper vote by mail ballots (included remote access Vote by Mail ballots for individuals with disabilities). The lawsuit examines how California laws like ballot harvesting and last-minute changes to Vote by Mail voting disadvantaged minority groups.”
The lawsuit makes the following allegations:
- California’s voting practices are systematically undermined through decades of unconstitutional laws and regulations.
- In the run-up to the 2020 elections, unconstitutional legislation, emergency orders, and regulations bypassed the normal legislative process and introduced massive new problems with vote by mail ballots.
- Evidence suggests required audits in Sacramento never took place and cybersecurity practices were lacking.
The lawsuit also alleges that California’s citizen observers were obstructed from meaningful observations of vote collection and tabulation. Some examples:
- Alameda County: An EIPCa citizen observer was informed by multiple county employees that no observers were allowed to observe vote processing and counting at all due to COVID-19.
- Orange County: The Registrar of Voters informed citizen observers that it had halted “first pass” ballot counting at 5 p.m. However, counting took place later in the evening without the knowledge or observation of citizen observers.
Some of the widespread election irregularities and potential for fraud across many counties including:
- Contra Costa County: Poll data tapes from voting machines show inconsistencies between votes as recorded by the machines and later tabulation of those votes in the vote for President.
- Fresno County: At the Clovis Center, a supervisor informed a citizen observer that the ballots for the first day of early voting (Oct. 31) had been left inside a vote tallying machine “unattended in a locked room overnight” and that it was his understanding this practice would continue every night until the final closing of the voting center.
- Los Angeles County: A citizen at Los Angeles County’s Pasadena Victory Park Center witnessed a machine change a voter’s vote.
- Orange County: An election official informed a citizen observer that “they do not verify signatures for provisional ballots” at all.
- Riverside County: An observer witnessed ballots put into boxes that were never sealed and were put into an election official’s car in which another unidentified individual was riding.
- San Bernardino County: An election official at the Registrar of Voters informed a citizen: “not all of the ballots will be counted, because California is such a Democrat state,” in response to the citizen’s inquiry as to why her in-person ballot had not already been counted. A citizen observed that there were 400 plus more registered voters on the rolls than there had been the night before (after polls had closed).
- Ventura County: A voting machine company employee was observed inserting a flash drive into a voting machine while it was tallying votes, after which the system was rebooted. The employee then removed the drive from the machine, placed it into his own laptop, and performed operations on the laptop. He then removed the drive from the laptop and provided it to the election official.
The Epoch Times attempted to reach Secretary of State Shirley Weber and her press office stated: “We do not make comments on pending litigation.”
Chinea ended the evening by saying: “We will follow the lead of Arizona’s Maricopa County forensics audit. We are asking for audits by Voter Registrars in all 13 counties named in the lawsuit.”
